Showers Dr, Mountain View

San Antonio Shopping Center, in Mountain View, is about as standard as it gets. With a Sears, Payless Shoes, Wal Mart, and 24 Hour Fitness, this could be just about anywhere in California. I've written about Showers Drive before, in the context that this is the only shopping center where I have ever been hit up by panhandlers (and more than one, at that!) But the Wal Mart was very accommodating with my needed return, so I've made peace with that.

I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's, so any place that has that is a huge plus. I would consider this shopping center reasonably easy to get to, although, like just about everywhere else in Silicon Valley, the traffic is often chaotic and a bit of a cluster@#@%. Parking is available, although you may not get something as close as you would like, which can be a pain if you shop for large items or groceries. The layout is also not the most intuitive, so I have found myself wandering around, looking for my car, more than once.

Overall it is fine, although my panhandler experience still strikes me as just too darn weird...

It's funny, because Mountain View is a nice town, reputable and world-renown for its Google headquarters and hotbed of smaller Silicon Valley startups. However, the shopping center on Showers Drive is one of the sketchiest I have ever seen. This is the only Wal Mart parking lot I have ever been to where I have been approached by panhandlers. And not just one - I was actually approached by multiple panhandlers when I last shopped here, asking me to donate money for various reasons. They are also a particularly assertive bunch.

Don't get me wrong - I like Mountain View. But this was not a pleasant experience.